FAA Bizarro World Follow-up

As a follow-up to my FAA rant from February 25th my first day back at work after my weekend the supervisor I wrote about didn’t look at me or speak to me all night.

I wrote it off to him simply being crabby and having a bad day. However, I did discover from a controller coming in on the mid-shift (the overnight shift) that other controllers in the area had already been talking about the incident.

I was a bit surprised, but word does tend to travel quickly amongst the controllers when something like that happens. Because of the rotating shifts we work, we don’t often see controllers working certain days off, but there is a bit of overlap on some shifts, and obviously word had spread via this overlap.

Needless to say, lots of people talking about something probably means the supervisors would overhear at some point.

The supervisor didn’t say much to me the rest of the week, and I could come to no conclusion other than that he was moping.

It’s odd to me that he’d be mad, given that he was the one that chose to elevate the matter using his position and brandish the “big stick”, but I’m guessing he felt betrayed. He thought we were “buddies” and he believes I turned on him, both by disagreeing with him initially and by telling others of how he ultimately handled the disagreement.

But in reality he turned on me. Any “friend” of mine would be able to discuss something and have a disagreement without threats (which is how the discussion started).

And if he doesn’t understand that turning a discussion into a formal meeting supervisor to employee elevates the issue, he’s a lost cause.

Maybe I wasn’t supposed to have a problem with his approach; I don’t know. After all FAA managers recklessly wield their authority like they’re Kings and controllers are just peasants so maybe we’re supposed to be more accepting when they do things like this.

I’ve always said that trying to think like an FAA Manager is like trying to think like an insane person; unless you’re truly insane you cannot possibly arrive at the conclusions they do. And insane people generally don’t realize they’re insane either…

Either way the fact that he was mad proves that the FAA management truly does live in Bizarro World.